Matt Foster
Published: October 26, 2005
PJC Police were involved in a chase that ended with the suspect’s car in a ditch. The incident happened about 2 p.m. Oct. 20 near the athletic dormitories on the Pensacola campus.
The circumstances surrounding the initiation of the chase were unavailable at press time, officers confirmed on the scene that the suspect was a juvenile and either a student or former student at the Pace Center for Girls on the Pensacola Campus.
Investigator Lisa VanAtter of the PJC Police Department made initial contact with the suspect.
The suspect entered her vehicle, a 98 Ford Escort SE, and proceeded onto 12th Avenue with PJC police shadowing her. Aware of being followed, the suspect turned onto 9th Avenue and returned to the Pensacola campus.
“We were monitoring her,” said PJC Police officer Wallace Carter. “She began driving erratically and we tried to get her to stop. She tried to use her car to hit us.”
The suspect made her way down College Boulevard and into dormitory parking lot where she was boxed off by two PJC police vehicles, driven by Carter and VanAtter.
“When she saw that she was blocked in, she basically had two choices – hit me in my vehicle or go off the road into the ditch,” Carter said. “She chose the ditch.”
“Because she attempted to hit several officers with her vehicle, we took her out of the car at gunpoint. She did not offer any resistance.”
The entire incident lasted about eight minutes.
Officer Chris Echele from the Pensacola Police Depart-ment and PJC Police Sergeant Peggy Anderson also responded.
“You want to make sure that they get stopped,” Anderson said. “We didn’t want to chase her if we could help it. If you chase, they run.”